| Buffy comic |
[Jan. 25th, 2007|07:30 pm] |
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Pretty Willow art from Dark Horse here. Interesting Buffy art here. Are those Rorshock cards? Uh oh, Buffy in therapy. These are presented as by the site as desktop wall paper and may not be part of the actual comic, but they look cool anyway. They sure look like covers. |
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| Buffy Comic |
[Jan. 9th, 2007|10:00 pm] |
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Very nice cover shot of Buffy #2 here. A detailed description of #2 with lots of spoilers can be found here. Beautiful cover art though, makes all the grief about the comic worth it for me, just to get art like this. |
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| fanfic award. |
[Dec. 20th, 2006|07:21 pm] |
I won the Crossing Over award for best miscellaneous fic! ~Does the happy dance~ Thanks everyone who voted and for whoever nominated me. It's a wonderful Christmas present. ~Does the happy dance again~ I hope you're all having a wonderful holiday season.
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| Buffy Season Eight |
[Dec. 7th, 2006|11:45 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  happy | ] |
You can see previews of the comic here. It looks good. I'm not sure I like the explanation of the Immortal, but it is a Whedon approved explanation. Oh yeah, the pages contain spoilers for season eight so be warned.
Hey, a Buffy spoiler warning! I thought I'd never see one of those again. |
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| SMG's career |
[Dec. 6th, 2006|11:30 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  weird | ] |
I know it's silly but this article has been bugging me. Buffy's return, with a whisper, not a scream
And this one hasn't helped. That scream you hear: Gellar’s career dying
There's more where those came from, but you get the idea. SMG has made one well received movie. Southland Tales. It seems to have disappeared. See the details here. The case of the missing cult movie
Well she's got plenty money. We were watching her on Conan and the wife said SMG's nesting. She's putting her carrer to oneside to focus on hubby and home and getting ready for baby, and that SMG is so talented she could get her career back like that ~snapping fingers sound effect~ My wife kind of identifies with SMG. Maybe, but I worry. I feel some sort of vague connection to her career and want her to do well. And she's sort of not.
The good news is she's got Girl's Guide to Hunting and Fishing coming out, which costars her with Alec Baldwin. It's been renamed Suburban Girl and she get's billing over Baldwin! See here.
IMdb says she has four other movies coming out this year, so her odds are good for a hit. But one's animated so it's voice only. The Air I Breath has her playing the spirit of Sorrow. Okay, but I sort of wanted her to do something fun, like comedy. Having her play the spirit of Sorrow, well, just sort of depresses me.
Alice is based on an award winning horror video game, where an adult and insane Alice is trapped in a horror version of Wonderland. Hmm, could be good, but it's horror again, and it's the sort of thing that's tricky to pull off. On the plus side, a bloodsplattered Alice in Wonderland should be very controversial, maybe with pickets and protests, and other stuff that gets lots of free publicity.
She stars in Addicted, but IMdb lists the following plot outline, "A woman's life is thrown into chaos after a freak car accident sends her husband and brother-in-law into comas. Thrills arrive after the brother-in-law wakes up, thinking he's his brother."
Everytime I read it, I shudder. A freak car accident, comas, amnesia, false identity? If it were a comedy maybe, but it's listed as a thriller.
Oh well, I'm sure she has very talented agents who plot her career path for her, and of course she's a very experienced actress who has everything well in hand. I just worry sometimes.
Everybody think good thoughts about Alice.
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| (no subject) |
[Nov. 23rd, 2006|12:44 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | cheerful | ] |
Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!
If you missed it, a wonderful interview with Joss on the comic book here. I swiped it from Whedonesque. |
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| fan fic and psychotic ramblings |
[Nov. 15th, 2006|08:57 pm] |
My story is spinning out of control again. Here is an example of obssessive/compulsive writing at its worst, or maybe having too much fun with the story. Anyhow, Jenny is mad at Giles and makes him buy her and Xander dinner. But where do they go?
I wanted them to go to Stearns Wharf, 'cause I'm in a mood to be extra Santa Barbaraish. Problem, there's but one decent restaurant on the wharf, Santa Barbara Shellfish Company, and it doesn't serve fish and chips. I already wrote the scene and had a bit about Jenny thinking the fish and chips were too greasy. But how important is that anyway? The menu's a good match and the location is perfect, and fish and chips is a cliche, Giles can have a nice crab sandwich.
But the name. Santa Barbara ~ahem~ Sunnydale Shellfish Company just screams tourist trap. Sure it's supposed to be a great restaurant, but the reader won't know that, he'll just get a tourist trap vibe.
There is Brophy's, frequently rated the best seafood restaurant in Santa ~ahem~ Sunnydale. It's at the harbor but not on the wharf. And it serves fish and chips, but...only in the clam bar. Well i'm sure they'll bring the food to you. Hmm, okay. Xander switches to cioppino, finishes quickly and leaves to patrol with Buffy. Jenny has the swordfish and stays to yell at Giles. Giles can have the mahi mahi, or the fish and chips if he wants to be anal. It's too bad they don't actualy bring the sword part of the fish out. Is there any food Jenny could use to attack Giles with? Nothing jumps out.
I am so strange.
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| (no subject) |
[Nov. 3rd, 2006|03:38 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | happy | ] |
I'm getting a little embarrassing with my shameless fanboying of Jane Espenson but her current column here is way cool and talks about a part of Buffy I'm working with so I loved it. I also think this column really relates to fan fic writing and is something I'm going to take to heart in my future stuff. And she examples from Buffy again. So fanboying continues.
I got two nominations at TWTHM! Best obscure cross and best misc cross, both for Once Around. Thanks who ever nominated me. I always wanted to be nominated for something, so I'm in my happy place now. |
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| Buffy Comics |
[Nov. 2nd, 2006|05:28 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | cheerful | ] |
More comic art here, as well as a new interview. That's Dawn on the bottom, right? Looks like they're glamming her up. Not sure I approve of Buffy's nose. Well I suppose we'll just have to wait and see.
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| fanfic |
[Nov. 1st, 2006|09:13 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | content | ] |
I posted my story to TTHM and INAP, but INAP won't take it for some reason so you can read it here. The 2nd and 3rd chapters are what I've just added. I haven't yet figured out how to do one of those closed posts on my LJ, so I'm not posting it here just yet.
Not sure how I feel about it. But I'm sick of editing it so I'm kicking it out the door. |
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| fanfic writing |
[Oct. 31st, 2006|10:04 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | good | ] |
I got the editing itch, so I stopped my story at ‘Surprise’ and started editing. I’m now at the point where I hate the fic, which means it’s about ready to post.
I’ve been rewatching the second season of Buffy for this fic, and it is so powerful. This really is Buffy at its best. I’ve been watching a lot of late series stuff and its shocking how powerful season two is. This really is a television classic and Buffy at her very best.
This is also why I’m switching methods. This structure free approach isn’t working for me. I need more to be much more focused to have any chance of handling Angelus and the run from ‘Innocence’ to ‘Becoming’ and do them any kind of justice.
Hah! I chickened out. I was wandering all over the place and when Angelus was supposed to arrive, I panicked and wrote TBC.
Plus this free write stuff is just so…revealing. It’s basically a 50 page power trip. It’s like I’m staring at my id here, and it’s kind of a nasty thing. It’s a little embarrassing. Fun to write though.
Ah my weird crap is the same as everyone else’s weird crap. I’ll just hold my nose and post it. Nobody will notice. And I’ll like it a lot more once I’ve stopped editing it. Hating the fic is sort of my editing process.
Lots of trick-or-treaters this year. Faeries were big for some reason.
Happy Halloween! |
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| (no subject) |
[Oct. 25th, 2006|08:23 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  melancholy | ] |
I just heard the Eden Studios lost the license for Buffy and Angel. It's really too bad. They're a great company that has produced incredible stuff. It's just...sad. Next product up was going to be Welcome to Sunnydale, detailed maps and descriptions of all Sunnydale locations. Then Tea and Crossbows, the Watchers Council source book, and Military Monster Squad, the Initiative source book.
The thing is, they did great stuff. Hey, they did force Joss to give Faith a last name. They were that "some little roleplaying company" that bugged him for it.
Oh well.
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| (no subject) |
[Oct. 18th, 2006|07:39 pm] |
I’m having lots of fun with my Buffy/Wheel of Time sequel and it bothers me. I keep thinking this is bloated and self indulgent and I have a hard time seeing that, so if I’ve spotted it, it’s pretty bad.
But this style is to stream out the first draft however, and only then begin knocking it into shape. So I suppose I’ll just have to trust the technique.
Another thing is, I’m rewatching season two for this and I’ve really gotten the characters wrong. Xander is much snarkier. About 50% of his dialogue is snarky comments. I was having one snark a conversation, and that’s way off. He needs to be snarked up dramatically.
I’ve also completely misread Buffy. I’d remembered the emergence of Angelus as being the dark turn. Wrong. It was Prophecy Girl. Buffy spent all of season two as the Grim Avenger. She’s much more focused and committed than I remember. Angelus was simply stepping on an already broken heart.
A Xander/Willow romance is developing, which bugs me. I was a Xander/Willow shipper from way back, was devoted to the ship from the beginning of the series. Ah I remember it, the long darkness of the Oz years, the despair over Tara’s arrival, the sudden and dizzying rush of Kingman’s Bluff, and the crashing disappointment of season seven.
But the thing is, I’ve written a number of Xander/Willow stories. I’ve sort of gotten it out of my system. And getting it out, I can examine the ship with something like a clear head. And it isn’t believable.
These two just have little in common. They have different interests, hobbies, personal styles and natures. Without the bond of high school they drifted apart in a very realistic and believable manner. If it wasn’t for Buffy, I’m not sure they’d even be sending each other Christmas cards.
Plus I’ve just written a Willow/Kennedy fic and I find myself really believing that Willow is a lesbian. I mean, she says so a number of times. In Him, she was under a spell to make her fall in love with a man, and her response was to try to turn him into a woman. That seems pretty clear.
So I’m not sure I’m really in a Xander/Willow space any more. It’s hard because it’s my core ship, but I think the feeling is fading.
Do you ever find that writing stories changes you? I do a lot. When I began, I was all about the Spike hate. But when I got to writing him, it just faded away. Now I actually like the guy. Makes watching the episodes again interesting. My fondness for Kennedy developed the same way.
I have a new theory about my Xander obsession. See, Xander is a heroic beta male. We betas have a hard time of it in fiction. We never get the girl; always get sand kicked in our faces, and other stuff. So when we see a heroic beta saving the day, it’s exciting.
I found a wonderful writing blog by Jane Espenson at, logically enough, www.janeespenson.com. Great stuff, with examples from Buffy. I’m taking her ‘Trimming the Fat’ column to heart.
Yosemite was a blast. The falls were not going, naturally. I had some idea that we were in fall enough for early snow to start them up again, but no. But the park was wonderful as always, with fall color and stunning views.
It made me realize what awful shape I’m in. I barely made it to the top of Vernal Falls. That’s like a basic hike, and from my childhood was something in my family that we just did. We always were sort of smug about the people who couldn’t do it.
Well, I had trouble. We were on the Mist trail and I really had to get grip on myself and gut out the last part. Forget about Nevada Falls, I was spent.
But the family’s focused on hiking again, so we can get busy next summer. Colin’s hot to go back to Yosemite in the spring, and we can start planning that trip. |
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| random rumblings |
[Oct. 11th, 2006|09:51 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | happy | ] |
I'm working on a sequel to my Wheel of Time story and am having lots of fun with it. I'm a little worried in that there doesn't seem to be much conflict and it's running towards Marty Stu territory, but heck, it's fun and I can beat a plot into it once I've got a rough draft done.
I'm trying that technique where you blaze through a rough draft as fast as possible and then spend lots of time reworking everything. I've never used this method before so it'll be interesting.
I've always been resistent to pursuing a halloween story because they've been done and done well often. Also the writing of Season Two Buffy is so perfect that it's really intimidating to play with. But I've got this side thing going that leaves the main plot alone and sort of focuses on extra reactions to the main plot. So it may work. Anyhow, it's fun to write. I'm kind of in a selfindulgent mood.
No one ever reads this but if they did I would tell them to get over to Liz Beth Marc's Dark Xander ficathon found here. The stories are all of a very high caliber and full of dark, angsty goodness.
I was kind of bummed 'cause I'd just posted Mirror, Mirror just before the ficathon was announced. But it worked out for the best. I'm proud of my little stories but I can see clearly enough that I'm not quite ready to play with the big kids. Maybe next year.
We're off to Yosemite! I'm so looking forward to a few days off. The falls should be going and the fall color is in. We'll rent bikes and scoot around. Sit by the fire at the lodge. Lots of day hikes and then naps. Mmmm, really looking forward to it.
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| political test |
[Oct. 10th, 2006|08:34 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  contemplative | ] |
This is weird. I used to be this rabid conservative. Lately I've been going through a cynical and disillusioned phase. But centrist? Hmmm...I could sense I was moving politically but that's a big shift.
Centrist
You scored 41% Personal Liberty and 44% Economic Liberty! |
| A centrist believes in moderate government intervention in both personal and economic matters. They tend to be somewhat ambiguous, as they may have the oppurtunity to pick the side of any group surrounding them on any given issue. They generally believe in a moderate social safety net and what they consider to be a balanced stance on personal liberty. Centrists tend to emphasize compromise and cooperation between partisan groups. |
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My test tracked 2 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:
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You scored higher than 17% on Personal |
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You scored higher than 62% on Economic |
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| More Marvel Madness |
[Oct. 4th, 2006|05:58 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | disappointed | ] |
So I'm mad about Marvel Civil Wars #4. It's just so heavy handed.
Tony and the registration side are so very very wrong. It's annoying.
But I'll admit I was wrong. I did like the registration side, and
now that they are being portrayed as psychopaths, well, they are clearly
the wrong side.
Tony and Reed are worried that the other superheroes are abandoning
them as word of their evil deeds gets out. In fact, Susan and Johnny of
the Fantastic Four join Captain America's side. That's right. They
abandon Reed and join his enemy. Which is right, because Reed is so
very wrong. Susan points out that Reed has become a fascist, which is
so clearly true. ~sigh~
Tony and Reed's countermove is to recruit supervillians and use them
to attack the superheroes. This is a stalling tactic until they can
bring their superpowered clone army into play. Yes, attack of the
clones. They are borrowing tactics from the Sith.
The villains they are releasing from jail are all extremely vicious
serial killers, Bullseye, Venom, Lady Deathstryke, all with a long habit
of slaughtering innocent bystanders. Reed says he'll monitor them
electronically to make sure they don't do anything wrong while
they're loose on the public. Right. ~sigh~
See, here's a more interesting story. We know Ben has withdrawn to
Europe in disgust. Suppose Susan took the kids and joined him. She
wouldn't be fighting her husband and leaving her kids with the
fascist, she'd be taking her family to safety.
There's always been this tension between Sue and Ben. A glance here,
a touch there, it crackles with energy sometimes. But no one's ever
touched it because it would explode the 'First Family of
Marveldom.'
Well suppose they got cozy, playing house on the Riviera? Suppose Reed
heard about it, but couldn't leave because of his duty to the
registration side. Suppose his tension and irritation*informed his
attitude towards his opponents. Suppose Susan called and argued with
him about the registration act, but really they were arguing about their
marriage. Couldn't that be interesting? Maybe more interesting than
Reed just donning a black hat and being a fascist for no reason?
~sigh~ |
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| civil war and fanfic |
[Aug. 14th, 2006|10:58 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | content | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Theme to Ryan's Hope for some strange reason. | ] |
I'm turning on the Marvel Civil War. This week we learned that the registration team has built a secret prison in the Negative Zone, Marvel's Phantom Zone where all sorts of weirdness occurs. It's in another dimension, a dimension known for producing evil monsters and strange beasts and for having an unbalancing effect on the minds of people left there.
That's where they built the prison. Yeah, good idea.
They're also shoving everyone there and denying them lawyers, trials, any outside contact ect. So this is bad. We have to have our constitutional rights, and being seized and imprisoned in an alien dimension without trial seems like a violation.
Wonder Man (I always giggle over his name. The jokes he must get) has run afoul of the law. He's a popular actor/superhero who's supported registration and actively worked with the government to enforce the law.
Well the Feds wanted him to work for them full time. He pointed out that he hadn't been drafted. They told him the registation act says he has been drafted, that they have full say over what he does, and to put on a uniform or go to jail. So he puts on the uniform.
See this is just dumb. Obviously you don't harass popular heroes who are supporting you. You leave them alone for pr. But this is just a 'Cap was right, everyone else was wrong' hit you over the head with a hammer approach.
Next week Iron Man should be starting with the inquisition and start torturing people with electrodes.
See it doesn't make any sense. These are all big time heroes, Mr. Fantastic, Iron Man, Spider-Man and have been heroes for decades. Now suddenly they're dime novel villians, torturing prisoners and cackling with glee. Why? What's the reason for this sudden abandonment of decades of behavior patterns.
Of course it's all Cap must be right stuff, but geez.
They say it will be a bad guy mind controller at the end, which i guess would make sense.
I've finished Once Around the Realms and am editing it. I've posted parts one and two and gotten some nice reviews, fun to be appreciated. I left Deety in, but cut her part down to nothing which seemed to work.
And I'm finished. It's a freaking novel. It's done. Wow.
Of course it's bad. I do that thing where I write a new character, fall in love with him, write him up big for two pages, then drop him and never go back to him. It's also got a flawed structure. The first half, or two thirds consists of heroic Xander action. The last third is Buffy's quest to rescue Dawn and Xander, with a dose of Buffy angst.
See heroic Xander fans will recoil from the switch to angsty Buffy. Angsty Buffy fans will never sit through 100+ pages of heroic Xander to get to Buffy angst. So it's unreadable.
But not to me. When I started fan fic, this is closest to the story I meant to tell. And now it's told. Maybe it only works for me, but that's okay. It took me a year, on and off. But I ment to tell it and now it's told.
I wrote a novel. Hey, it's a bad novel, but it is a novel. And it's a novelly novel, with a begining, middle and end, problems to be solved, mild character arcs, hell, it's recognizably a novel. Check. Now to write a good novel. But this was a step on the path. ~sigh~
Hey, more proofing to do, not done yet. |
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| Fic update and more Marvel musings |
[Aug. 4th, 2006|11:26 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | contemplative | ] |
I’m hitting a major snag in Once Around the Realms. Trying to write through it but its slow going. Basically I’ve introduced the character of Deety Carter from Number of the Beast by Robert Heinlein. Through her I’m introducing the whole Heinlein gang and his World as Myth cycle. But I don’t have anything to do with her. She’s just hanging around.
It really makes intuitive sense to me, as De Camp and Heinlein were both stars of the Golden Age, and these are their multiverse crossovers. I originally wanted to have Val Matchuk from Operation Chaos by Poul Anderson there. It would be golden age homage.
I chucked Val because it was just too much. But I kept Deety because I wanted to get a Buffy reaction to Heinlein sexual morals. Well I wrote that scene and it wasn’t really funny. And I’ve still got this disruptive character traipsing around my story. And the energy is just gone.
So I already know what I need to do. I need to rewrite the scenes, eliminating Deety. If this story is popular I could write a sequel which could have an expanded golden age theme, and Deety could show up. But for now, kick her out.
I’m a little worried as I’m so close to the end I want to race in and finish up. Maybe I’ll just do that and then go back and carefully rework everything. Ahh, it’s frustrating.
LizBeth Marcs is having a dark Xander ficathon and I thought seriously about entering Mirror, Mirror. Then I lost my nerve. I’m just not there yet. I think I’m improving as a writer, but I need a lot more work before I’m ready to play with the big kids.
Looks like I’ll have to eat my words regarding Marvel Civil Wars. They are invoking race and the civil rights struggle. All the black superheroes are on Captain America’s side and they’re all publicly stating that this is just like the civil rights struggle with Dr. King.
I’m not sure I see it, but I guess you can’t argue with it. Cap has also stated several times that this is act is a direct violation of civil rights, and everybody on the registration side always looks at the floor and gets shamefaced when he says this, so he must be right. I’m just not sure how wearing a mask and costume and beating up muggers are civil rights, but Cap is always right.
Iron Man is starting to turn. He’s becoming more strident. He also told the Black Panther not to interfere in matters that didn’t concern him, which has a vaguely racist sound to it. There are rumors that in upcoming episodes IM will lose it, and start torturing people and setting up concentration camps and secret police forces. So yeah, Cap must be right.
Some one pointed out that IM has a moustache, and that there’s no way a guy with facial hair could be right and Captain America be wrong. I see the truth of this. IM is wealthy, has facial hair, and ties to Washington. He’s also a recovering alcoholic. He must be wrong. Cap must be in the right.
Luke Cage makes an interesting point in that slavery was once legal. But most of the abolitionists worked within the system to effect change. They broke the law surreptitiously with the Underground Railroad, but they didn’t arm themselves and engage in gun battles with the government.
They were eventually successful, getting within striking distance of overturning slavery with the election of Abraham Lincoln. The slaveholders realized this and moved to civil war and that started the shooting.
But were they right? Given the enormous violence of slavery, was a peaceful resistance and working within the system approach justified? This is basically John Brown vs. the Quakers. Brown led an armed band into Harpers Ferry and began forcibly freeing slaves and shooting slaveholders. He battled the state militia and was defeated and hung.
So who’s right? Doesn’t extreme evil demand immediate and violent confrontation? I’m really not sure. Certainly the Quakers were eventually successful, while Brown was a failure. I suppose it’s also the Dr. King vs. Malcolm X argument.
But I don’t see the connection with wearing masks and spandex and find the effort to make one vaguely irritating.
Ben Grimm offers a unique approach in this month’s Fantastic Four. He concludes that the law is wrong, but he’s unwilling to battle the police. Therefore he opts to leave the country. He suggests that he’s fed up with the US and may never return.
Is this right? I don’t wish to obey the law nor do I wish to engage in an armed insurrection against the government, so I will quit the country. It works for Grimm because he’s a wealthy and traveled adventurer who could live well anywhere in the world. It’s sort of tough on his fellow citizens who lack his wealth and can’t relocate. Especially as he’s offered himself to them as a leader and protector. But hey, it’s his life.
Grimm is prompted to this by another civil war battle that badly injures a youth. Everyone is ashamed of this. They sort of ignore the point that the law was intended to protect innocents from super battles. It’s sort of awkward that Cap rejects registration as unnecessary and then gets into a fight in which an innocent is injured. But they ignore that, as…well…Cap is always right. |
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